Defund Environmental Regulation, Health Care – Rep. Flores

Budgetary woes, deficit spending and looming national bankruptcy depends on cutting discretionary spending - defense issues don't count




Waco - Fresh from his first, rather bewildering session of Congress, Bill Flores told a standing room only crowd at the historical Texas Rangers headquarters, Ft. Fisher, that the only way to create more jobs is get the government out of the way.

How?

Take away the operating budget used by EPA, the Department of Energy and other agencies to enforce job-killing environmental regulations.

He didn't sugar coat the numbers. Using the language of the year-end report, the board room and the business proposal, the former energy company CEO and corporate financial officer didn't try to break to his constituents gently.

The aggregate figure for unemployment – including those who are no longer eligible for unemployment compensation and have quit trying to find a job is standing at 17%. One out of every six people is unemployed, and the trend is irreversible unless someone releases some of the pressure.

As to federal environmental enforcers, Mr. Flores said, “They're continuing to overreach and every time they overreach, people lose their jobs...We're doing everything wrong when it comes to creating jobs.”

The result is uncertainty in the business community. In fact, the trepidation is so strong that day after day, companies reach the conclusion that they can pack up and move to foreign shores and do a lot better job of what they do.

The federal government is just that hostile to the business community, according to the numbers, said Mr. Flores.

Looking around the massive room, you got the feeling that Mr. Flores knew he was preaching to the choir. Sprinkled throughout the audience that numbered in the hundreds, one could see business owners, accountants, bankers, manufacturers and politicians.

These are the people who meet the payrolls, pay the taxes, balance the books and meet the man when the credit crunch comes.

Their affect was one of worried expressions, whitened lips compressed with a desire to control their emotions, and rapt attention to their Congressman. It was an extremely somber and sober group.

These people are afraid. They have no idea what is going to happen next, and it shows.

Mr. Flores rattled the figures off with aplomb, unsustainable numbers that show no light at the end of the tunnel, not even a speeding locomotive.

“You go back and look at great societies that failed – you'll see this.”

What is this?

Start with a budget proposed by President Barack Hussein Obama of $3.2 trillion - $32,000 per household that claims 1 out of every 4 dollars in the gross domestic product.

The only bright note he could think of was that the second half of the budget contains no earmarks – pork spending Congressmen and Senators pass in amendments to other bills to benefit their districts and states.

There is a reason for that, he said.

“What we got when I got sworn in the first day was no budget.” It's impossible to prioritize spending when there is no budget to look at in your calculations, he explained.

“None of that funding was done because Congress abdicated its responsibility,” he concluded. The previous Congress adjourned without adopting a budget.

Ripples of laughter lightened the mood when he told the people who sent him to Washington that it took a forklift to bring the pallets of books containing the proposed budget into the Capitol building.

“What we did was, we needlessly destroyed a bunch of trees.”

The information in the books is moot, meaningless, he maintained.

Obamacare? Presently, 10% of the gross domestic product is devoted to Medicare and Medicaid. With the health care act of 2010 looming on the horizon, soon 100% of the GDP will be devoted to the debt service on the nation's obligations to creditors.

The key is to completely cut off the money if Congressional oversight won't work, and it won't, he said.

The only thing that Americans have to look forward to is a skyrocketing deficit of $14 trillion and climbing, according to Congressman Bill Flores.

It's going to be a long Congressional session and an even longer election season of 2012, to hear him tell his story.